Why SDAs Hide Their Identity.. in their own words

I would like to present some real-life examples which illustrate the parable I wrote a few weeks ago,  Deceitful Duck Logic.

A very common practice in  Adventism in order to gain converts is to rent a public facility for meetings and send invitations in mass mailings to the community.  The colorful invitations include promises to explain Biblical topics relating to end times and other subjects people may have questions about.  What they don’t include is any mention of who they are.  Most who attend these meetings are already Christians attending other churches, as these are the people with the most interest in prophecy subjects.

I heard the following account from a person directly involved.   Feel free to check out the facts of this if necessary.  In July 2009 the Adventist  “It Is Written” ministry rented the Performing Arts Theater in Lancaster, California for three weeks, at the cost of thousands of dollars a night.  They sent out over 200,000 invitations to the community and named the series of meetings  “Countdown to Eternity”.  An ex-Mormon and other concerned Christians decided that someone needed to at least inform the attendees about the identity of their hosts and their key beliefs.  After the meetings ended they passed out fliers to those leaving the building.  They delivered more than 500 in the first couple of meetings and many expressed their gratitude for the information.  Observers of the first meetings reported no one would have suspected they were not mainstream evangelical.  They promised to help their audience “understand prophecy better”.  No church affiliation had been indicated.

I have seen this method in action myself, on a smaller scale.  When our own small local SDA church organized similar meetings at the local college,  we were asked to lie in response to questions about the speaker – that our SDA pastor teaching the series  “may be the pastor of a church in the area in a few months”.  We did not agree to lie for him.

Recently another former SDA I know in Nevada received a brochure at her door.  She immediately recognized it as having the Adventist flavor, but no name was listed.  She called the number provided and this is what transpired:

I called the phone number on there.  When the lady answered I told her I had this brochure.  I asked what church was sponsoring it.  She said, “No church.”  I could not stand the lie, so I told her I was a former SDA and I recognized SDA doctrine when I saw it.   She  did a LOT of protesting and I kept on telling her she was not telling the truth.  That is when she admitted she was SDA.  I told her it was a lie to say she did not know what church sponsored this,  and that they had given it to the wrong person.  – Diana R. Lopez

A couple who are in the process of leaving the SDA denomination recently confronted the church’s practice of initially hiding their identity in evangelistic outreach activities.  The following is a response to this issue, a direct quote from the associate pastor of a high-profile church, Pioneer Memorial Church on the campus of the Seventh-day Adventist Seminary, Andrews University.

The discussion of whether our evangelistic advertising should include the church name has been a live discussion in the church ever since I can remember. Many agree with you that
all of our evangelistic advertising should always include the Adventist name. Most of our evangelistic meetings are held in our own churches because it’s less expensive than renting public facilities, and in these cases the advertising does include the church name by necessity. The other argument is that surveys indicate that the average person on the street confuses us with Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, etc., and to include the Adventist name would not be communicating truthfully to such people.  I won’t claim that there is never an  attempt to deceive, but I think it’s safe to say that that is rare. Other motivations are involved. – Skip MacCarty

So we see the line of logic is “honesty requires us to not tell the truth.”  Of course the REAL question is, “Why do people confuse you with the other two cults?”  And another, “Why is it okay to lie in order to teach people they should keep the 4th Commandment?”

In spite of their fear of being associated with JW and LDS, Adventism has done an amazing job in the last few decades of presenting itself as a mainstream Christian church which simply meets on Saturday.  I meet so few Christians who know what Adventists actually believe, or that they also have a prophet like the Mormons.   Evangelical factions exist within the denomination who do not hold to the historic precepts which launched the church into existence.  Yet the official stance from the organization remains unchanged in crucial areas that deviate from the tenets of orthodox Christianity.  For an overview of these differences, an excellent Evangelical Resource is “The Truth About Adventist Truth” – by Dale Ratzlaff, former SDA pastor.

Truth does not need to hide or deceive.  It is not afraid of being questioned or tested.  This practice alone tells me there is something wrong with Adventist “truth.”  I dearly love Adventist people.  I know many believe their message is so important it justifies the means.  But I also have a burden for unsuspecting prospects to not take the bait, but to be aware and discerning.

I have been given permission to share both the exit letters and church response which contain the above quotation. (links below) The church requested this couple always include its response with copies of their own letters.  While this couple is under no obligation to do so,  we are in agreement that the church response says much than their exit letters ever could have.

Dana Kendall’s Exit Letter

Scott Kendall’s Exit Letter

Pioneer Memorial Church Response

New Blog is Up!

Here is a link to the first post on the new blog!  It’s kind of a transition piece that alludes to my testimony here, but looking forward to something new!  I posted a version of this on facebook last week, but edited it some.  I never seem to stop editing, as there never seems to be an end to my mistakes! Ha.   I’ll put a link on the blogroll in the column to the right, and this is the end of my own commercial.

God and the Grand Canyon

Great New Covenant Sermon!

I wasn’t looking for this when I found it, but was so happy to run across it.  This is by a pastor who is not addressing the controversy around the Covenants but just presents a really moving picture of the simple truth in Jesus.   Sometimes I think it’s good for those of us who have been set free to step back and look at what the New Covenant gives us, not just what it has freed us from.

One Year Ago…

…I officially launched this blog to the world, thanks to the unexpected encouragement of a wonderful sister in Christ.  I had started to write, but wasn’t taking it seriously.  I felt a need to tell our story – even if no one ever read it, otherwise known as therapy.  What started as something I never imagined anyone would actually see, is now an obscure almost unknown blog. That’s what I call success!! ha.  I have been amazed and overwhelmed to see what God has done with this, and the new dear friends He has brought into my life as a result.

To celebrate I am launching a new blog with a different focus in order to share other things God is teaching me as we grow in our walk with Him.  The new one is registered and I will post a link soon.  This 8thday4life blog will remain dedicated to the purpose of contending for the faith and I will continue to post here, as the Lord leads.  I am so thankful for His presence in our lives and continued reassurance that He is with us always, even to the end of the world.  Praying for His soon return!

Advice on How to Evade a Question

I am writing this for some comic relief, to poke fun at human nature, of which I have plenty.  I have used these at times I’m sure, and I find them to be the most common tactics used by people who need to defend something that has no basis in truth.  This not only applies to people who have been deceived about religion, but also to people who are not willing to face uncomfortable truths about themselves.  Denial of all types must run for cover when faced with a truth, so in case you run out of options.. maybe these will be helpful.  Once you have mastered them, you can run for public office.

• Present evidence you like that always proves you are right but has nothing to do with the question.
• Ask another question that indicates you don’t like how the question was asked or what it implied.
• Present false evidence that discredits the evidence presented to you and ignore requests for documentation.
• Complain the question is not important.
• Complain that the inquiring party is being critical.
• Assume and assert the motives of the inquiring party are evil.
• Attack the questioner with all manner of accusations as to their own spiritual state.
• Go back to talking about your favorite point that always proves you are right.
• Explain away incriminating evidence with faulty but convincing logic.
• Bury the questioning party in a 15 point tirade that will make everyone forget what the question was.
• Make a point and say, “End of Discussion.”
• Draw attention to how the question makes you feel badly an you are tired of people always picking on you.
• If you started the discussion, try to assert that you meant something else.
• Ignore the question altogether, and change the subject.

A New Relationship with Christmas

I recently sat in a living room with several other Christian women who meet once a month to learn more about healthy living.  As an icebreaker for this meeting, the hostess asked us to share how we keep things in perspective during the busy holiday season, as well as special traditions our families had.  I realized how this question would have stressed me terribly a few years ago.  When my turn came, I related that I did not have a great deal of experience yet, (long story) but we make an effort to give Jesus the gifts, to the “least of these”,  rather than go crazy on junk no one needs, wants, or remembers this time next year.   As the sharing moved around the room, one woman began to explain why they were not going to celebrate Christmas this year.  Her explanation wavered between sheepish embarrassment to dogmatic conviction about “what the Bible says.”  I know that conviction well.  No one knew what to say.  I knew what I wanted to tell her, but I also knew she would have to walk down that road to see what I see now.

You cannot ignore Christmas, no matter how hard you might try.  And oh did we try, for nearly ten years.  We came under conviction early on in our Christian lives that we were wrong to mix the worship of the one true God with traditions inherited from Paganism.  The desire for our worship to be pure before God sparked our search for the purest form of our faith, seeking to go back all the way to what we believed were our authentic roots.

I don’t blame anyone for coming to this conclusion about Christmas, especially if you do as I did and study out the history of the Church and various holy days.  During the Middle Ages, every month had some type of celebration adopted from various pagan cultures, renaming the days for saints, yet retaining the rituals of superstition and divination.  I did not view this as an honorable history, but rather a church compromising in order to gain allegiance and control of the masses.  In many countries around the world today you see a strange mix of traditional cultures with Catholic mass and rituals, mixing Jesus and Mary with whatever custom they can impress them upon.  Watching documentaries of other cultures, I personally saw no difference in what they were doing and our culture’s worship of Christmas.  (I felt the day was worshiped, not God, and still see this is the largest pitfall of our materialistic culture.)

I became a Christian after spending time in the New Age, so I was especially sensitive to avoid all references or participation in paganism, which at this time in my life, was perfectly right.  All I could see in Christmas at that time was compromise, which is why I don’t judge anyone for choosing to not celebrate this day.  However for me, my pure devotion quickly transformed into a source of superiority and pride.

Each year as the day rolled around we sometimes had a dinner with friends who shared the same conviction.  There was literally nothing else to do.  We would eat, play games, and lament how our families just did not  understand.  We personally didn’t mind being with our own families, but some did not respect our unwillingness to exchange gifts, which created awkward situations, so we tended to avoid them.  The irony of our non-Christmas dinner fellowships wasn’t lost on me.  I realized, we were still acknowledging the day, just in a different way.

When confronted with Christmas invitations and questions, I soon tried to not reveal that we didn’t celebrate it because the questions were uncomfortable.  Do you believe in Jesus?  Are you a Jehovah’s Witness?  It took too long to explain.  Even with the challenge it posed, this became an important feature of our unique spiritual identity.  To ignore Christmas is like standing against a tidal wave.

When our eyes opened to the reality of what we have in Christ, and we began to rebuild our spiritual worldview, we had to face once again the question; What do we do with  Christmas?

We did not have a new set of facts.  History cannot be changed.  And this was in fact our conclusion.  Try as we might to pretend it didn’t happen, Christmas has become the shining star of the entire year of holidays for the whole western world, and even in many countries which do not generally embrace Christianity.  As we looked at the issue again, we had to go back to the testing method which originally prompted our discontent with the Hebrew Roots Movement.  Fruit.  The unintended result of rejecting Christmas had only caused people to shy away and assume we did not even believe in Jesus at all.  Only atheists and cults deny Christmas.  (Here’s your sign…once again.)  If you are in fact wanting people to know about Him, this is counterproductive to say the least.  This only added to the ways in which we gave the wrong impression about Jesus, which were many.  The only things we had to show for our pious obedience were sheer boredom, miffed family members, and a distraction away from Jesus, not toward Him.

When we looked at  Christmas again, instead of seeing only paganism repackaged, we saw paganism redeemed, for the spread of the gospel.  Just as Jesus took us who were broken, sinful, idolatrous, rebellious, and prideful – and redeemed us for His glory – we realized He can also do this with a day if it pleases Him to do so.  The evergreen, the pagan symbol for eternal life, we see now as a symbol of their desire to overcome the problem of death, the problem only Jesus has the answer for.  The lights symbolize the true Light of the World, that comes in our darkest, coldest nights.  The day they dedicated to call back the Sun is now celebrated to the Eternal Son.  It seems maybe God intended for things to transpire the way they have.  Another miracle of Christmas is the success of its worldwide popularity, being presented as the day of Jesus Christ’s birth!  If I were a pagan, I would not see this as a victory for my perspective, especially since most people don’t give a second thought to where the traditions came from in the first place.

As I sat in church during what was arguably my first real Christmas, fully embracing Christ, I was so moved by the focus on the amazing miracle and sacrifice of a God who was willing to come and give everything of Himself to His Creation.  How could the Creator submit to a human birth,  just as we are born?  I related to Him in the birth of my own children and wondered what Mary must have thought as she held God in her arms.  Thankfully she could not fully see the days ahead.

Did He command me to remember His birth?  No.  But part of the beauty of the New Covenant is found in the love offering our life becomes.  In the Old Covenant people brought freewill and thank offerings when they desired to.  I believe Christmas, for a genuine believer, becomes a time to present a thank offering to Jesus for the amazing gift He gave, which only started with His birth.  We cannot stop at the manger.  Our minds are drawn to the cross, and finally a risen Lord, and His ever-present Spirit, the true Spirit of Christmas.

I found it was not possible to ever completely separate myself from this holiday, but I am thankful that I am now in a new relationship with it that blesses me and gives me a chance to bless others in many ways.  I don’t believe there is any other day of the year that provides a better stage to share the truth about Jesus, to find people with their ears and hearts a little more open.  I am sorry for the years I missed that, and for all the frustration we put our families through.  I have also seen how special this day is to those who don’t have the freedom to worship Him openly, and how they have risked their lives to honor their Savior on the day dedicated to His birth.  I would much rather stand with them in their sacrificial love of Christ, than were I stood before, in pride against those who have given all for Him.  What will you do with the day of the Son this year?

Thank you Jesus for being willing to come to our dark world and share in our human suffering and carry our humiliation.  Your love is beyond understanding, beyond anything mortal man in all his vain wisdom ever dared to hope for – a God that would come down and unite Himself with us, in order to save us.  Thank you that You are in us, and we are in You, forever! Maranatha!

Beware the Cluck that Comes with a Waddle

A parable showing how to reconcile the conflict between your identity and your message.

Deceitful Duck Logic

duck or chicken?

There once was a duck who thought ill of chickens.  She gathered all the ducks together and convinced them chickens were indeed very evil – so evil in fact, they may be in danger of being wiped out of existence by the Farmer.  They decided to warn the chickens, and teach them how to be more like ducks.  Many chickens were persuaded to try out of fear.  The ducks convinced them the Farmer really loved ducks more and the only way to avoid being eaten was to become a duck.  Sadly, the truth was much different.  The farmer kept the chickens because they produced eggs, and did not kill and eat them.  There was plenty of evidence to support this, yet the ducks told the chickens their eggs were not important, but the most urgent thing they needed to learn was how to walk like a duck.

Not all the chickens were so easily swayed however, and some tried at times to tell the ducks they were very strange for saying such things.  In fact, most of the chickens did not accept the duck’s ideas and would not invite them to the farm socials.  While the ducks were the first ones to cause the rift in this relationship by accusing chickens of being a lower life form, they simultaneously wanted to be accepted by the chickens in some activities.  Since they knew the chickens had been turned off by their duckness, they began to fluff their feathers more and learned how to cluck like chickens.  Eventually the efforts paid off, and the chickens began to accept them and include them in their chicken parties.  If any chicken pointed to them and cried..”Don’t be tricked!! That is not a chicken, but in fact.. a duck!”  The other chickens would turn on them and peck them until they decided it wasn’t worth the effort.

The disguise worked so well, the ducks decided to use it when inviting the chickens to their own meetings.  After all, if chickens knew they were actually ducks, no one would come to hear what they had to say.  The meetings, designed to illustrate why chickens were evil were ironically presented as meetings by chickens and for chickens.  After being mesmerized by the initial illusion, and believing the accusations against their own kind, many chickens were not at all alarmed when the feathers settled down into an oily matte and the clucking turned back into quacking.  In fact, some never even noticed the transfer from chicken back to duck and came to see themselves as a restored chicken – going back to the way chickens were always meant to be… a duck.

So.. if it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck.. it must be in reality, the essence of true chicken.

Short Video Question for SDA’s

Interesting set of videos for more information:

John Ankerberg show interviews Walter Martin

(must scroll down page for the series of videos)

Grief

I have no idea what prompted me to look, but today I searched for our old friend to see what he had been writing lately -  the friend we left behind in our Hebrew Roots group – the one  who took over after our departure and could not accept that Jesus gave us a New Covenant.  Our relationship remained strictly formal after we left, and all attempts to reconnect on a level of friendship were incredibly strained.  Eventually even the working relationship he and my husband had fell apart, and unless God moves it does not appear they will have a part in our lives anymore.   I have grieved the loss of this friendship more than any other in my life.  I do not place all the blame on them for this.  Yet, I failed to find a way to bridge the gap our differences created.

Today I read an article he wrote shortly after our last Sukkot together – referring to an experience I heard him talk about to some extent.  He had gone off to be alone and had a spiritual encounter that seemed to move him greatly.  I do not doubt for a moment he experienced a genuine awakening of sorts, but what he is describing is a metaphysical, mystical experience where he became aware of the unity of all creation and his own connectedness to it.  This is not uncommon for those involved in various forms of meditation, and the concepts he describes are nearly identical to those who follow in New Age/Eastern religion/metaphysical ideas.  (He had been delving deeper into the teachings of Kabbalah through the Chasidic Jewish teachers.  They hold much in common with mystics of Eastern religions.)  He wrote of this in the context of wrapping tefillin, (praying with phylacteries), and described repentance as the process of the whole creation returning to its former state.  His small part in that was pursuance of Torah in his life.  He explained he could never fully repent, but that this would be an ongoing process his whole life.  Repentance for him is going back to the old ways of God and endeavoring to have his life measure up to the desires of God.

I may be making a wild speculation here, but I do not believe that if someone has become a New Creation in Christ through the New Birth, he or she would experience a solidarity with the old one in such a way.  Of course there is a great appreciation of nature and what God has made, but spiritually we no longer belong to this creation, which is passing away.

2 Peter 3:10  But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.

The fallen creation cannot repent but will be made new just as our hearts have been in regeneration. (In Judaism, teshuva or repentance, they say means to turn back to something, such as YHVH in keeping Torah where Christian repentance as spoken of in the New Testament is defined as turning AWAY from the old and walking in New Life.)

Not only is the content disturbing, but the publication website is dedicated completely to Judaism, stating it does not acknowledge any faiths outside of Judaism, and all content posted there must be aligned in such a way.  My heart sank as I realized his reference to “Moshiac”  (Messiah) in this piece – while in passing – was not understood to mean anything to do with Jesus Christ of Nazareth.  Even if our friend still believes so, there was no evidence of this fact and he did not deem it important enough to identify.  If he believes it, this is a point he is hiding in order to have his writing included in this venue.

1 John 4:2,3  By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.

I remember being terrified when I added up all the pieces and saw how many ways we denied Jesus in our belief and practice in the Hebrew Roots Movement.  I made a list and came up with 13.  I’m sure there were more.  Today I felt like I was seeing ripened fruit of this antichrist spirit and shudder to think how close we were to falling off into this.  I marvel that just a few weeks after our friend had this experience, we too had one – in a very different direction.  Up until this time, we had looked up to him as someone knowledgeable in the ways of Torah and opening up the meanings of Scripture to us.  He studied deeper than anyone in our group.

The spiritual oppression we were under in this movement is very real.  I believe the weight of the dark cloud that lifted off my husband that day as he accepted the truth of the book of Galatians was nothing short of a demonic stronghold.  We were delivered when we turned to Jesus, and read the Word of God, and believed it, as Paul describes in 2 Corinthians 3.  “When one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away”.  Not that we can take the credit in any way.  Jesus Himself drew us or we would have never begun to seek Him.

My grief for the loss of a bond of friendship has deepened to sorrow for the reality of their spiritual direction, away from Christ.  I am not writing this to bash him.  I’m not giving out names or links.  I only wish to warn any who might pass this way, be not deceived.  You cannot hold on to Jesus and the Torah of Moses as equals.  You will lose one or the other in the end.  (Romans 7).  I will not give up praying for my friends, that by some means, they too may come to see Jesus as He is, in all His Glory.

2 Corinthians 10:4, 5  For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.  We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ…

If this is your first visit to this blog I invite you to read our testimony and the articles posted here.

Ending Well

I heard a sermon a few years ago on the radio relating many stories of men who rose to fame in Christian ministry only to end in defeat or humiliation.  The stories sobered me because you seldom hear “the rest of the story.”  The speaker shared statistics which indicated this is actually the more common outcome, rather than the exception.  I have been reading over the life of Solomon lately, and this sermon came back to mind.  We have no shortage of examples in scripture or in modern Christianity.

An interesting paradox in our Christian walk is that the greater a gift God gives His children, the more potential we find for the gift to become our bane instead of a blessing.   The first temptation is to love the gift more than the One who gave it, not realizing we have misplaced our highest devotion.  I believe this was Solomon’s downfall – his heart being drawn after the women in his life and passively following their spiritual desires at the expense of his love for the true God.  Sometimes the gifts and blessings of God overwhelm me, and the temptation is to focus all my energies on those things, especially my children and family.  But if we make an idol out of our career, house, family, church family or a charismatic leader, our love will quickly grow selfish, constricting, conditional, and even abusive, as we have cut ourselves off from the true Source of real love.  These idols are hard to see because we are supposed to love and nurture these things – but not more than we love God.  We often don’t realize we have crossed the line.   But others can often tell something is wrong, even if they don’t know why.

The other trap, especially in the area of ministry, is the feeding of our pride.  We mistakenly begin to ascribe to the sometimes subtle belief that our gifting originated in ourselves, not in God, or we may want to think He gave it to us because we are special in some way.  This describes the first evil found in our universe – when Satan became lifted up in his own beauty and aspired to sit on God’s throne himself.  We can never delude ourselves into believing anything good originates in us, and not lose the benefit of it in the end.  Solomon asked for wisdom in humility, telling God he was like a child who did not know how to go out or come in.  I wonder how long he remembered this was his natural state before God answered his prayer?

This is where we learn that the greater our revelation, the more we must be willing to suffer.  The great men and women of faith I admire the most, have suffered things I can only imagine. Why is this?  God’s mercy I believe, as Paul wrote:

So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.   Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me.   But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.  For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.  2 Corinthians 12:7 -10

This is why we are instructed to not despise the correction of God.  He does it in love to protect us from ourselves.  Not every calamity comes for this reason.  Some obstacles we are called to stand and fight against in spiritual warfare, but we must have discernment to hear when He says to us, “My grace is sufficient.”

God’s giftings come with testing built in – to see if we will love Him the most, and walk in humility before Him.  But if this is not enough, the church turned institution developed an over-dependence on leadership not found in the New Testament.  This structure places men on platforms they should not have to stand on, and binds burdens on them which should be shared by other giftings designed to work together as.. a body…. maybe?   This damaging symbiosis weakens both the pastor and the flock.  One is taxed to the point of his flame being burned out, even if he does not fall into temptation, and the flock becomes passive, expecting the leader to spoon feed them, inspire them,  hear from God for them, soothe their every wound, and do the work of building the church by reaching the lost.  Some enjoy being large and in charge I suppose, but I have known those who have crumbled.  They need intercessors urgently – especially those who truly have a heart for honest truth and obedience to the Spirit.  Spurgeon said his ministry was a result of fervent intercession by those called to pray for him and the body.  Once during the Israelite’s wilderness wanderings, God allowed the burden to fall on 70 other men to prophesy with Moses – to lighten his load.  Moses declared at that time he wished all of Israel would prophesy.  This is the reality of what we have in the New Covenant and of God pouring out His Spirit on all flesh!  Yes we need leaders most definitely – but they are not ordained to be our everything.

Burnout, falling into sin, being distracted from our First Love in idolatry – just a few reasons why we do not end well.  Paul spoke of running the race and seeking the prize at the end.  I don’t believe he meant striving to be saved, but striving to end with integrity and faith, glorifying Christ.  In Ecclesiastes it appears that Solomon gained the greatest wisdom in the end – realizing the vanity of this world and the importance of a singular focus on God Himself.  Yet the consequences of his disobedience played out in a sad story of a divided kingdom.  We are living in an age of divided families, friendships, and churches.  We are not ending well, and it is my greatest desire and prayer that our true focus may be restored – to the praise and glory of God alone.

A Dream

A few weeks ago, I had been fasting for health reasons for about 3 days – not a total fast, but almost.  The morning of the fourth day I had a long vivid dream.  I woke up from it at 4 a.m. and wrote it down because as others I’ve had in the past that were significant, this one impressed me as being important.  I can’t explain the difference between a normal dream and these others I have sometimes.  They are full of symbolism that I don’t “see” and understand until I wake up, and I began having them about three years ago.  I am not going to claim it’s from God.  If He did give it, He will confirm it in others.  If it was just a result of low blood sugar on the brain, and impresses you as such, you are free to file it circularly.   I have no attachment to the outcome of sharing this.

Here is a summarized version – the actual dream is longer and full of details.  As I wrote it all out – the symbolism became clear to me and I wrote out what I believed it meant.  You can test that too, and add your thoughts if you have any insight.

Dream 11-17-09

My husband dropped me off to meet a friend of ours in old trailer park located in a run down part of a big city.  I had no idea why I was there.  Our friend met me and we walked to the back of the park where there was a gate.  We went through the gate and there was some sort of a compound set up.  The first thing I saw to my right was a canopy with tables set up, and against one wall a Ham radio was set up on a table and white boards up on the wall behind it.  Looked like a place for planning and communication, but there was no one there.  We went past it and into a small building we had to step up to get into.  Inside were a group of people having a meeting with a man standing up speaking.  He seemed to be presenting people with a choice.  I sensed no one would be asked to leave, but he began to openly confront people with Jesus Christ – and asking people to share what they believed concerning Him.  Some became visibly irritated – and uneasy.  Two people left.  The man was making it very clear that unless you were completely on board with the truth about Jesus, you would not want to be there.  But no one was told to leave.

From there much activity was taking place – people finding their assigned living spaces in the building.  It seemed like a training program of some kind.  I was given a small area with a bed.  The first thing I realized about the place was that everything that was brought into the building was equally shared among everyone – no exceptions.  One young woman came up to me so excited to be there, and started to explain to me that her pastor had helped her to come there. I began to wonder why I was there, and how.  I looked at a clipboard and the names of my family were written down to be there four weeks.  I asked my friend that had brought me if he knew anything about that, but he wouldn’t say anything.  In fact he never said a word at any time in my dream.  I wanted to know who arranged it – what was the cost??  None of my questions were answered.  All I knew was that  I was supposed to be there.

The place was closed down on the weekends, so I went home and my family returned with me the following Monday. I had brought supplies from home and was suddenly convicted when I put them in my quarters – remembering that they must be put out to be shared equally with everyone else.  I went to the main kitchen/living area and there was a notice that the director and his wife were resigning, which gave me a sense of uneasiness because we had just arrived and didn’t have any idea what to expect anyway.  I didn’t want to be in a situation where there was chaos.  I began to bake a cake.. and after I put the batter in the pan, I was dropping spoonfuls of red and yellow frosting into the batter, to be baked inside of it.  (I think I know what this represents – will explain later).  As I was doing this, a man came in who I knew was the director, but had never met him.  He began to talk about how things were before he came, and how he was afraid problems he had dealt with would return after he left.  He said before he came, everyone there had been striving and competing against one another for position and authority.  No one trusted anyone else.  Then he pointed to a cabinet where the medicines were kept.  He said the door remains open and unlocked (like all supplies remained out in the open for all to see/share).  He explained that before it was kept closed and locked, and people often found ways to steal from it.  Since the door was kept closed, no one realized the theft had taken place until someone opened it up to use something, and by then it was too late to discover who had done it.  With everything out in the open, everyone knew at all times what was supposed to be there and anything missing would be immediately obvious to everyone.

At one point – my family was trying on swimming suits because the facility had a pool – but we never actually saw it.  People would refer to it sometimes in passing, but I have no idea where it was.  My husband and son walked out of our quarters with their bathing suits on and were strongly urged to not be seen wearing them.  No one wanted to talk about “the pool” for some reason.

The last part of the dream, I was outside playing football – yes football.  If you know me – you know I do not exactly think highly of this game, nor am I physically able to engage in any form of this sport.  But in my dream I was having a great time, playing football with teenagers (still at the training center) and fully physically engaged.  I remember the element of the game giving me the greatest satisfaction was the joy of working together as a team.  I was playing with reckless abandon – putting 100% into it mentally and physically – doing things that I can truly, only dream of doing in real life. ha.  When I came inside to get cleaned up, I had pain in my eye and I looked to find 3 small twigs (looked like thin pine needles) lodged in my eye. I pulled them out and it hurt terribly, and began looking for something to treat my eye with to prevent infection.

My conclusions about the overall meaning:

1 – I see it as a dream about being in training for things to come as it concerns the Body of Christ.  Training and  preparation are important.  The training facility was equipped to do more than it was being used for.  The radio was not used, and neither was the pool.  I am currently writing a parable where communication with the Holy Spirit is symbolized by a two-way radio.  I think this is the symbol of the Ham radio, as well as the importance of being connected to other groups of believers in other places – to not be isolated as a body from the wider Body.  Water is also a symbol of the Holy Spirit and there is a very large segment of the the Church that is not willing to fully acknowledge what it means to be “immersed” in it – being scared because of issues that have been blown out of proportion in this area.  I see the silent radio, the elusive pool and cautions to prospective “swimmers” to be a rebuke concerning our relationship with the Holy Spirit.

2 – The central and most urgent purpose that we should be aligned around are the simple truths of Jesus. When He is clearly presented and lifted up, and people confronted to testify for Him, tares will not be content to stay in the body.

3 – In our individualistic, capitalist-minded culture, we recoil at the idea of “commune” – because it looks like communism.  I won’t get into politics, but capitalism practiced by those with fallen human nature is just as evil as the alternatives.  It has made us selfish, and self-reliant.  The church in Acts was “communist” in the sense that they shared all things and no one had need.  In hard times, we as the Body of Christ must be willing for everything we have to be used for God and His family – not counting anything as our own.  When people are suffering there is no place in the Holy Spirit that allows for hoarding, greed, and a lack of compassion for those who are in lack.  This cannot be legislated to unregenerate hearts – but it should be the desire of the children of God.  We must find our purpose in our calling, not in our things.

4 – Striving against one another for position, leadership, influence, etc..  will only tear us down.  Leaders must be respected and we need an attitude of humility toward each other, not arrogance and pride in our own agendas.

5 – Transparency prevents dishonesty, and keeps all problems out in the forefront.  Keeping things locked and hidden away does not allow issues to be dealt with.  No secrets.

6 – Teamwork, finding pleasure in helping one another in our mission – being willing to sacrifice ourselves completely to help each other.

7 – Close contact in teamwork brings offenses and they can happen before we even realize it.  We can have collected grievances we didn’t realize we carried until we find they hurt.  We need to remove them and seek “salve” to prevent infection – the spreading of bitterness.

The meaning of the red and yellow frosting and the cake.  This really made no sense to me and I couldn’t figure out what in the world that was doing in the dream.  Everything else made sense as I was writing it out.  Then it came to me the colors of the communist Chinese flag are red and yellow and I believe the things that I have seen in this dream are the lessons from the persecuted church.  Putting the frosting in the cake to me represents these amazing believers who are the sweetest of all their countrymen – but are forced to be hidden underneath the surface.

A week or so after I had this dream, someone loaned me a book that confirmed so many things I understood this dream to mean.  I felt compelled to share it.

Take it or leave it – as you wish.